President’s ReportImpact Act: FAQ’s CallWashington Update2018 Partners in Progress Event SponsorsTargeting Zero InfectionsCMS Opioids Roadmap

Click on link to view attachments:https://www.ndha.org/resources/publications/

McKenzie County Healthcare System Ribbon Cutting Event

Phone: 701-224-9732Fax: 701-224-9529Web Site: www.ndha.org

Jerry Jurena, PresidentTim Blasl, Vice PresidentCallen Cermak, Finance ManagerLori Schmautz, Executive AssistantPam Cook, Education DirectorMelissa Hauer, General Counsel

A portion of this publication is supported by The Center for Rural Health’s Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program. Visit their site at http://rural-health.und.edu/projects/flex/.

The Informer

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June 15, 2018

President’s Report ~ Jerry Jurena Jamie Orlikoff Thoughts on Boards of Directors: two issues that were discussed at the Rural Health Care Conference in Phoenix, AZ recently were trust and conflict. This tracks a common theme that Jamie Orlikoff, a health care governance and leadership expert, also speaks about regarding what makes a hospital Board of Directors highly effective. He stresses that an absolute key to success is trust. He said trust does not mean doing what others want you to do, but doing what you said you would. This goes not only for the directors but the administrative team as well. You do what was agreed upon in principle or policy. Trust is built on being open, honest, consistent, and reliable. Trust is built on tough conversations. It takes time to develop trust, but it can be destroyed in a moment of time. Each board member has a responsibility to develop a strong working relationship with each fellow board member that over time contributes to an individual and collective trust. The other issue discussed - conflict - can be a game changer. It must be defined objectively and the group must agree on the meaning before addressing a solution. Emotions and personalities need to be removed from the conversation. Restate the problem or perspective of each person, take time to consider all the possible solu-tions, and defuse any tension by re-framing the issue. The Board Chair will be re-membered for how he or she addresses this tough issue. If you have not attended one of Jamie’s presentations, you need to. His experience and insight are invaluable. McKenzie County Healthcare Systems, Inc. New Facility: Dan Kelly, CEO, McKenzie County Healthcare Systems, Watford City, is hosting a ribbon cutting event on June 22 for the grand opening of the new medical facility. I want to extend my congratula-tions to Dan and the entire Watford City community. Attached is a flyer for the event.

Thursday, June 21 from 2 to 3 pm ET

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During this call, learn more about the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Trans-formation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act). CMS answers your frequently asked questions on quality measures, standardized data elements, the CMS data element library, and future directions of the IMPACT Act. A question and answer session follows the pre-sentation.

IMPACT Act: FAQ’s Call

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Legislation aimed at addressing the nation’s opioid epidemic dominated the health care news in Washington this week. The House this week approved more than 30 opioid-related bills. More – possibly including a key hospital-backed bill – will be consid-ered next week.

Meanwhile, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees this week introduced bipartisan legislation that will serve as the vehicle for the majority of House-passed opioid-related bills. The Substance Use-Disorder Preven-tion that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act – what a mouthful – will also be voted on next week.

NDHA has supported these measures, especially several that address hospital concerns such as developing alternative pain management protocols to limit the use of opioids in the ED, and providing for better coordinated care for patients after discharge from an ED.

The bills also would require a review of current opioid prescriptions for chronic pain and screening for opioid use disorder to be included in the Welcome to Medicare initial preventive physical examination and require prescription drug plan sponsors under Medicare to establish drug management programs for at-risk beneficiaries.

Next week, the House could consider a bill that would align 42 CFR Part 2 regulations on confidentiality of substance use disor-der treatment records with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rules for purposes of treatment, pay-ment and health care operations. NDHA and AHA strongly support this measure.

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee this week advanced the Helping to End Addiction and Lessen (HEAL) Substance Use Disorders Act, which would require Medicare and Medicaid to provide better education, prevention, management and treatment options for pain and addiction. It also would increase treatment for substance use disorder and improve tracking of opioid pre-scriptions under Medicare Part D. NDHA and AHA also generally supported this bill.

As reported earlier, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has already reported its opioid bill. Senate floor action could come as early as July.

In other news, the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee is expected today to approve funding for the agencies in FY 2019, which begins October 1. Overall the bill would provide $89.2 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, $1 billion more than this year and $2.4 billion more than the president’s proposed budget. We’ll have more analysis of funding levels for key rural and workforce development programs – hopefully – next week. The Senate subcommittee has yet to act on its version.

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Annual Convention UPDATE 2018October 9-11, 2018 October 9-10, 2018

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Washington Update ~ John Flink

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Register now for a free webinar with continuing education

The Making Dialysis Safer for Patients Coalition and the Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety (NTDS) project invite you to a webinar presenting recommendations and best practices for environmental disinfection in the dialysis unit.

Webinar: Targeting Zero Infections - Environmental DecontaminationDate: Tuesday, June 19, 2018Time: Noon - 1:00 PM EDT Registration: Register (at no cost) here: http://bit.ly/2LVA4mx

Topics: • CDC recommendations for dialysis station environmental disinfection• The patient perspective on environmental cleanliness• Challenges and solutions for reliable implementation of best practices for environmental disinfection• The responsibility of the Medical Director in ensuring proper environmental disinfection in the dialysis unit

Featured Speakers: • Alan S. Kliger, MD, Clinical professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine • Priti Patel, MD, MPH, Medical officer in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC • Stephanie Booth, BSHCA, Infection prevention educator in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC• Danilo B. Concepcion, CBNT, CCHT-A, FNKF, Operations Manager at St. Joseph Hospital• Derek Forfang, Patient advocate

Audio: Please note the audio for this webinar will come through your computer speakers. During the webinar, please ensure that your speakers are turned on and the volume is up. Thank you.

Although some progress has been made in efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate the crisis is not slowing down. CMS published a roadmap outlining our efforts to address this is-sue of national concern. In this roadmap, we detail our three-pronged approach to combating the opioid epidemic, focusing on:

Prevention of new cases of opioid use disorder (OUD) Treatment of patients who have already become dependent on or addicted to opioids Utilization of data from across the country to target prevention and treatment activities

Current estimates show that over two million people suffer from opioid use disorder, with a prevalence in Medicare of 6 out of every 1,000 beneficiaries. In order to decrease that number, it is crucial that Medicare beneficiaries and providers are aware that there are options available for both prevention of developing new cases of OUD and the treatment of existing cases. CMS is working to ensure that beneficiaries are not inadvertently put at risk of misuse by closely monitoring prescription opioid trends, strengthening controls at the time of opioid prescriptions, and encouraging health care providers to promote a range of safe and effective pain treatments, including alternatives to opioids. We are also working on communications with beneficiaries to explain the risks of prescription opioids and how to safely dispose of them, so they are not misused by others. This roadmap is only a start, and as we begin to implement many of our plans and programs, it will continue to evolve. See the full text of this excerpted CMS blog (issued June 11).

Targeting Zero Infections: Environmental Decontamination

CMS Opioids Roadmap